Early Word on the Senate Health Care Bill

A number of outlets are reporting that the bill that Harry Reid will take to the Senate floor has gotten a pretty favorable “score” from the Congressional Budget Office. I’ll be writing more as I get details, but here’s the email I got from one Democratic source:

We are awaiting a final CBO report but have received very good news from CBO confirming that we have produced a fiscally responsible bill that reduces the deficit, extends coverage to millions of Americans and meets the President’s cost test:

§ Cuts the budget deficit by $127 billion (over 10 years) – going further than any other bill

§ Cuts the budget deficit by as much as $650 billion in the second decade

§ Extends guaranteed coverage to more than 94% of Americans – including a 31 million person reduction in the uninsured

§ Meets the President’s goal of keeping the cost of this bill around $900 billion – $849b

§ Achieves almost a trillion dollars in cost savings

Their findings will give us a great momentum as we move forward.

These findings will please all members of our caucus who have made fiscal discipline a priority in this debate as well as all members of our caucus who have made affordable care a priority

Senate Republicans who have on many occasions during this debate hailed the primacy of the CBO will have a hard time arguing with these numbers without being hypocritical.